:loser:/caves-1623/277/prospecting-coordinates.txt
MOVED to logbook. Guessed that this is the right trip.
2018 Philip Withnall
Description (talk to Philip to decipher)Coordinates (UTM, OsmAnd+ on Android, Philip’s phone)
10, no, just a pocket33N 411932 5283707
11, no, down sloping rift33N 411940 5283712
12, choked twin shafts33N 412043 5283693
12, steep scree narrow pitch, needs torch and rope, probably choked33N 412046 5283663
13, steep rift, floor mostly choked, no draft, need a rope and light, probably choked33N 412021 5283649
16, deep drippy rift, draft, leg 18m, deeper than that33N 411954 5283576
16, deep wide rift, 40m+, drippy, promising, 14m disto leg to first ledge33N 411943 5283565
CUCC OK1 201233N 411898 5283590
9, need torch33N 411879 5283658
8, no33N 411792 5283631
2017NR0233N 411873 5283527
6, needs rope and spade33N 411764 5283545
2, probably not33N 411787 5283480
133N 411804 5283452
2017NR0133N 411811 5283442
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-07-24
Nadia Raeburn, Frank Tully, Max Weiser,
Homecoming - Hobnob Hallway
We walked to Homecoming through Fishface cairning the route with Haydon, Jon, Ruairidh, Phil (U or W) and Typhon
filling in the gaps. Making it a fully cairned route.
Went down the hobnob hallway added a handline over the false floor using a thread.
Should be made into a traverse
with a bolt on the other side of the false floor.
We put a handline on the sand slope using a thread at the top.
We carried on down the rift to the first junction on a boulder.
The left has not been explored yet. We went right past
the water downa tight rift. It opened into a pitch 13m.
We turned around there. On the way back Frank saw a lead behind
the wet bit. Way out took longer than anticipated.
T/U: 7.0 hours
2018-07-24
George Breley, Adam Aldridge, Olly Hall, Becka Lawson,
Balkon - toHangman's->Hangngman + Window in Hangman's -> Myopia
No free drills at top camp but Adam and I managed to snaffle the only hand bolting
kit (there were two a week ago but...). We split at the head of Hangmans, Adam
+1 put in a hand bolt each, courtesy of a pre-naturaldeviation, managed to
swing in the big window visible from the rebelay down Hangmans.
We then had >100m of 5m wide phreas drafting strongly in
in our face with lots of bat droppings. Towards the end
it ramped up steeply then came to a large drippy pitch.
A loose looking trove(?) on the right wall would lead lead to the obvious
continuation of the phreas but we had no more rope so we headed
to the top of Hangmans where we met the others.
George had rigged a 50m rope from the ledge we got to ont he last trip but
had reached a freehang of of ~40m that he didn't have rope for.
(+ there was apparently a 5s free drop there too). Olly and he surveyed out,
met us, then the four of us had a jolly to the snow slope beyond Ice Lock aven.
George walked up past Andrew's belay point to the base of the aven
where he couldn't safely continue but there was soil and a strong draft
so there's hope of an entrance not far above & we should check the LIDAR.
T/U: 10.0 hours
2018-07-25
Frank Tully, Typhon King, Max Weiser, Philip Withnall,
2018-ad-02 - More prospecting and bivi cave fettling (Garlic Cave 2018-ad-02)
Another trip to the bivi cave (Garlic cave 2018-ad-02) to landscape it and
install some mod-cons. We put a cut-up survival bag in a poond to collect water
from drips. Should collect 10-15l, very slowly.
We then did some terracing to make two sleeping platforms for ~6 people.
There is plenty of scope for doing
furhter terracing to add ~4 more sleeping places.
We installed a tarp over the terrace so it should stay reasonably dry -
but we haven't tested it in wet weather.
We left a shovel there for future landscaping.
The idea is that a group could spend a couple of days there sleeping and
intensively prospecting, before deciding whether to expand the bivi cave
accommodation. If so, the water collection system and supplies from
Organhöhle could then be moved over.
Once that was done, we had a bit of time left to prospect.
Frank dropped 2018-pw-02 (see previous page) and killed it off. Survey:
6m deep, 3m wide rift, no discernible draft.
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-07-25
Olly Hall, Luke Stangroom, Nadia Raeburn,
2014-MS-14 - Driven East
Due to a missing spit driver we went East to look for it.
We found it quite quickly at 2018-MS-06. We carried down after to 2014-MS-14
to dig out the blowing sandy dig.
It was very easy and took 4 minutes of swimming through the sand to get through.
The passage carried on for another ~70m where it choked with rocks.We surveyed out.
On the way back it seemed the draft was going down the choss floor right before the
constriction. No noticeable draft after the constriction.
We reurned via the triangle big entrance that can be seen for miles away only
to find we weren't the first ones there.
T/U: 3.0 hours
2018-07-26
Philip Withnall,
base camp - Festering at base camp
Festered and nerded at basecamp. Made various improvements to the
GPX system, added syntax highlighting for survex files, thought some more
about QM lists, and cleaned up various hg issues for people down here.
Before heading down on the 26th, I replaced the tag on
Bad Forecast with a permanent one
(1623/277)
and took a look at 2010#04's snow levels. Didn't drop it,
but put some photos in expofiles/photos/PhilipWithnall/ for
comparison for someone who knows that hole.
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-07-26
George Breley, Becka Lawson,
Balkon - to Hangman's-> Myopia + Mongol Rally
We got a fresh 200m + split it between us + headed to the traverse at the end of Myopia
first as the drill was at the top of Hangman. George bolted a rather elegant
traverse along a ledge (extra bolt midway would be good) and the passage beyond
cpntinued large for all of ~30m until it came to another big pitch with, again, passage
continuing beyond.
We then headed down Mongol Rally to where Olly & George had got to yesterday,
switched the ropes so they were used more effectively then George
swung around in free space for quite some time trying the swing enough the
skyhook to a wall (?).. then repeated the exercise 30m lower. Finally he got
to a large obvious ledge - the Pitstop - where we could wander around +
with other passage visible in the shaft at that level.
George finally made it down to a large ledge + I tried to bolt the final ~10m hang
but I dropped the Hiltis down the pitch so I went down + passed them up to
George to finish the job. He was too droopy (?) to survey so we headed out from
Floodland at the top of Mongol Rally after a brief scurry around 2h45 out.
13.5 min up the entrance pitch for me versus 10min then 8min for George other
times... but I suspect some SRT shortcuts were involved. A rainstorm started
just as we were about to set off so we sheltered for 20min then stomped in the
dry to topcamp + 5min after we arrived it deluged so we jammily missed
being flooded in Balkon.
T/U: 12 hours
[See previous Mongol Rally rigging guide (part 1)]
MONGOL RALLY - Part 2 of 3 - rigging guide
Total rope for Mongol Rally = 23+40+40+22+100+65 = 300m (290m) approx.
[12] Pitch to enter Myopia from the top of Hangmans
[13] Myopia traverse
[14] Littleboy pitch
[moved from later in logbook:]
MONGOL RALLY - rigging guide - Part 2
[15] Suction cup pitch in Grand Prix,beyond Littleboy pitch rigged on 3/8/18
[16] Scum of the earth pitch below radio silence rigged on 4/8/18
MONGOL RALLY - rigging guide - Part 3
[17] Traverse above Horrible Pitch (Luke & Rachel)
[18] Horrible Pitch level of Indy Rally, 8+9 Aug.rigged George & Becka
[19] Horrible rift Part II - from horrible pitch Part I - climb down large
muddy passage to corkscrewing around,to obvious pitch head.
[NB rigging moved back here from later in logbook as it belongs here]
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-07-26
George Breley, Becka Lawson, Luke Stangroom, Olly Hall,
Balkon - to Mongol Rally
I found my second descent of Balkony to be easier than the first. Becka and Luke
headed down aghead of George and I to Pitstop to survey that aven while George and I
surveyed the rest of Mongol Rally,
starting at the ledge we ahd previously bolted and surveyed to.
We stopped at Pitstop so I could eat a Fitness bread and cheese while George said how terrible
Fitness bread was.
We then went and met Luke and a cold Becka before heading down, agreeing to head back at 5 or 6pm.
I continued marking stations for George to the bottom of the Mongol Rally. We then surveyed bottom
and George pointed out where Becka had stopped him and called him evil on their last trip. Beyond
this point was a large aven.
The only way on we could find was alonga large phreatic, mud-filled passage (still mostly walking).
We found a bat which surprised George who thought we'd left the bat level. We turned round when a
sketchy mud slope/pitch which required a rope.
Met Luke and Becka at Pitstop for the journey out.
T/U: 10.5 hours
2018-07-27
George Breley, Becka Lawson,
Balkon - Hangman's-> Grand Prix + Tunnocks Connection to Antlermuza!
My last chance of being underground for a few days so I was even keener than usual.It took 1h20min to get
to the bottom of Mongol Rally.
George rigged Littleboy pitch which dropped us into a round chamber where we started he survey
+ we headed off into 20m wide phreas once we'd spotted the moushole leading off. Implausibly there
werenomoreobstacles for hundreds of metres whilst George's brain frazzled trying to keep up with
the boulder drawing + my splays.
Eventually we got to a thin rift that blowed a gale where, after some furtling, we foundan easy climb
down... and a survey cairn! We found two other old stations (one numbered) so surveyed between them whilst
George got moody because his cave had been absorbed.
We headed back to Littleboy pitch to tie in the survey but spotted a side lead just before the
chamber and ran through some fast,staight, long legs there until we got to a wet pitch. We were oh so close
to a kilometer in the book/PDA so, rather than wrapping up at 6pm when we made the connection,
a 8.30pm colem(?) we tied int he survey we tidied up the area at the final ledge of Mongol Rally
tomake it 100m (albeit with a dodgy, cheeky leg or two).
On the way out we drank at the pool on Piystop as I was losing it with dehydration
- it's dry, dry, dry in Floodland (of course). It took 2.5h out and we
were on the surface at 01.30 to a full moon.
T/U: 15.5 hours
2018-07-28
Philip Sargent,
basecamp - network nerding
Tested Wookey's TP-link 200 Mbps HomePlug devices between potato hut & mains socket above
the washing machine in the gents' toilet at the Gasthof. It works:
the 2nd green light lights up indicating communications OK.
Previously had tested between potato hut mains and socket in potato hut loft - also worked.
To do: repeat test with a laptop at each end (needs ethernet socket in laptop)
to test actual useable bandwidth.
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-07-28
Luke Stangroom, Nadia Raeburn, Olly Hall, Max Weiser,
plateau - Surface
We setoff with Nadia and Olly to practice surveying and exploring two
nat-explored bits in Fisch Gesicht entrance.
Luke and I were trying to do a bolt climb up a 6m pitch.
The climb was free-climbed by Luke and rigged fromt he top by Luke
due collaspsing foothold during bolting.
The bolt climb crapped out after 20m.
After that we had a look fajelleux(?) with the others
at a potential dig in Fisch Gesicht which also crapped out after a few metres.
T/U: 2.0 hours
2018-07-28
Typhon King, Adelaide Diesbach,
FGH - "shat myself"
At thebottom of FGH had an ~80m pitch that needed bolting, and the idea of it appealed to
Typhon and I. After looking for someone more experienced in vain,we decided that our previous bolting
experiences (4 bolts between the two of us - as well as surveying experience -
I had seen M. Holliday do one survey) was enough. We headed to the cave under
the disapproving stares of Nadia and Luke.
We swiftly made out way to the bottom, where we struggled to find some good rock
to set a Y-hang; Typhon had to climb down a rift to find somewhere suitable, while I sang
every song I knew & tried to fight off the creeping cold.
Typhon got too tired (and needed to pee) to bolt a rebelay, so the 80m rope had
to be descended on a single Y-hang. I shat myself (not actually, I hear it's a figure
of speech in your language) a little while descending due to the h_i_c_c(?)
b_o_u_n_c_e of the rope, but Typhon's grin and general mentality of not giving
a fuck reassured me greatly.
The enthusiasm of dropping my very first pitch lifted my sprit up, we wandered
around the chamber &
found 3 leads;
- a 45° downwards tube which started with a 3m non-free-climbable
pitch and turned right,
- a hole in the wall behind (what we thought was) non free-climbable pitch (but actually was), and a
- rift which lead to another 80m pitch.
We left the cave very pleased with all the new leads.
PS we didn't survey because we forgot the notebook up the pitch OK bye.
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-07-29
Philip Sargent,
plateau -Surface prospecting along "lookfutile.svx" route
Using Garmin eTrex Venture Cx GPS (WGS84)
"lookfutile.svx" was surveyed by Chas and Planc in 1983 following the discovery of the futility series in 1982.
This entry includes recent emails which don't otherwise have a good place to record.
[Discovered a photo on the website of Planc doing this survey.]
Much bunde going directly down from the p115x entrance. Don't do that,go back along the route to
Stoger Weg and go down gully at the tree with the small cairn on it (see 115 route 18th July 2018).
Generally failed to find lookfutile.svx waypoints (not even the last one with all the red paint). Something
odd with GPS mismatch - needs nerding to resolve.
Found ent. * (doesn't go) obvious above grassy slope. It is up a 2m climb in a cliff.
This is wpt A11 in gpslog: N 47.66629 E013.81128 alt.1407m.
This was looked at by Chas & Planc in 1983 and doesn't go:
"big phreatic entrance further east up the valley" from
the 1983 logbook entry 1983-07-27.
Many photos of this area in photo archive 2018/PhilipSargent.
Survey station lookfutile.23 is apparently in open air due east of cliff top (which extends N-S).
Water collection system at 115works well: decanted 3.5 litres of rainwater into bottles. About 6 litres
now stashed in 115, plus a karrimat and one-man does of flapjack and another dose ofmuesli.; also large
orange plastic survival bag.
All other gear removed.
Walked back to Löser Hutte where I managed to catch the sunset drinking crowd and got a
lift back to Staudnwirt at ~21:00. Lots of big open cliffs, no bunde, grass and camping areas.
Recent emails from very old lags on this:
On 18 July 2018 at 19:46, Charles Butcher wrote:
Philip
Thank you. I’m sorry you had trouble finding it. Even the traditional route to the main entrance is quite a slog,
and if you don’t remember it – I certainly couldn’t – you could be in for a real epic. As you probably found.
I hope the server repairs went well.
Thanks also for the GPS data in your previous message, and to Andy and everyone else who has worked to
preserve this stuff. I’m astonished that we still have good records of all those muddy survey pages
from so long ago. And to see it all connect with Google mapping is really impressive.
Safe trip home
Chas
On Sun, 1 Jul 2018, 10:31 Andy Waddington, wrote:
Sometime before sending, Philip Sargent typed (and on Sunday 2018-07-01 at 08:46:16 sent):
> Any comments on the 115 entrances?
I really can't remember any of this without reading the stuff on the website - but that stuff is available to
everyone (unreliable memory is exactly why this stuff was all put there - but in the early days, which would
cover the 115 period, we naively thought we would remember everything, that the same people would be
going back, and that we didn't need to write everything down - though actual surveys were properly recorded).
Where survey data was corrected for fridge north, that should be recorded in the survey notes. That was such
a bizarre correction that I don't think it would ever have been done without explaining it. The Futility series survey
had two compasses, Suunto 422903 and Chas' Silva 15T. Had there been a major discrepancy between them, I
think they would have noticed. The bearings seem to be the same in the Survex dataset as in the notebook.
ie. the first leg is 8.08 m on 320 at -11.5. That's from the dataset extracted from CVS in 2001 (which is the oldest
I can find in a quick search here). I don't think corrections to fridge north would have been made more recently
than that... 075 to Trisselberg cross is the same as the notes, and even if the 115 entrance wasn't located
precisely, that ought to be enough to show if the error was more than the odd degree or two.
Not sure if the scans of this notebook are on the site.
Notes are a bit muddy, with no passage walls recorded.
Did Arge not resurvey any of this ?
Andy
Philip Sargent (Gmail)
to Charles, andrew, mary5waddington
Chas,
[and Mary, please pass on to Andy as I don’t think any email works for him these days],
Update, as promised.
Through the miracle that is survex, and the diligent curation of data* over decades by
Wadders and Wookey, I have recovered the survey points from your surface walk with Pete
on 27 July 1983 and attach as a GPX file in modern WGS84 coordinates. You can plot this
on top of a GoogleMaps photo using http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/map_input
(or select “OSM (TF Landscape)” in the drop-down on the map to see contours).
I will be re-tracing this slog and looking for more entrances in a week or so.
A bit lower than you went looks promising from the geology.
[snip]
I also attach the Futility series surveyed by us on 26 July 1983 (futility.svx)
and as resurveyed by Germans on 8th August 1999 (nutzlos.svx). But this is less
useful as GPX on Google maps as it is inside the hill of course and you would need
to use Survex/Aven itself to see it. They also seemed to have found another entrance
in 2000 which drops eventually into the phreatic stuff which they called the
Nebukad series (Nebukadnezar) and is now p115b (ent.) in the survey data.
I hope a find a cold draft coming out of rocks at least, even if I can’t dig it out.
Philip
* http://expo.survex.com/repositories/home/expo/loser/shortlog/b6c8d59090c3 is an online
look at the version control system used for cave data on Loser these days.
From: Philip Sargent (Gmail)
Sent: 21 June 2018 17:28
To: 'Charles Butcher'
Cc: andrew@pennine; 'Wookey'
Subject: RE: Aha - futility series entrance search...
Chas,
Unbelievably, that surface survey you and Pete did (“lookfutile”) is a standard part of the SMK dataset.
I can see that your final survey position was 11.7m above the drafting hole in Futility
(contrary to Andy’s notes in the file below), and 157m away horizontally. Maybe some
fridge-north corrections have been done since then.
You were also spot-on the line where the bedding plane of 115 intersects the hillside.
So going downhill from there, maintaining a heading of 118 degrees (if possible) would
track further down that bedding plane. As I remember, the survey legs may have been
ascending, but the passage roof was coming down to the sandy floor. So the draft
connection (“Utility Entrance” ?) would be lower down.
From: Charles Butcher
Sent: 16 June 2018 23:11
To: Philip Sargent
Cc: andrew@pennine
Subject: Re: Aha - futility series entrance search...
Thanks Philip. When you told me about your plan the other day it brought back memories of
thrashing around on the hillside, but I couldn’t remember what we were looking for.
I do remember that it was harder work than being underground. I suppose a Laplander pocket saw
would be frowned on in the Naturschutzgebiet, but useful all the same.
I assume those coordinates are relative to the entrance, or to whatever else we used as a
main datum. So if you have an accurate GPS fix for that datum, wouldn't it be quite easy
to locate the hole Pete and I made? Not that that is likely to be much use, since it’s
probably the one place we know there isn’t an entrance…
Anyway, good luck and keep us posted!
Best
Chas
You wrote:
stumbled on this:
http://expo.survex.com /years/1983/log.htm
1983-07-27 | Surface survey and Prospecting below 115. | Chas, Pete
The aim was to find the end of the Futility Series popping out of the hillside below 115.
We surface surveyed down to a permanent station, marked with bolt hole and lots of red paint: P1983/1.
This was almost directly below 115 and on the edge of the big trees.
It was at E77.2, N-237.3, H -195.8, whereas the end of the Futility Series was at G30: E 139.7, N -54.2, H-187.8.
So we were (!) at the right place, but the cave end was 180m into the hillside.
We had a good look round but didn't find any signs of caves there.
So we looked at a big phreatic entrance further east (up the valley) and ~50m higher.
This was looked at in 1982, but a bit of proddling released lots of boulders + we were able to
follow up a narrowing bedding plane at ~60°, for 10m until it got too loose/small.
Very difficult descent on scree to the end of the Altausseer See + then the Schniderwirt for Weizen Bier.
Pete
and Wookey thinks some Germans had a look around there too in later years
Unfortunately we use WGS84 GPS lat./long. these days so I’m not sure I’ll be able to find this
35-year old red paint.
I’m hoping to use better geology and modern surveying to find where the bedding plane intersects
the surface this year. I’m going out for 4-5 weeks.
Philip
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-07-29
Nadia Raeburn,
Expo - Midterm Report
Blog Author: TinywomanMidterm Report
Three weeks in and three weeks left. We are all filtering down the hill to clean up for the annual dinner and refresh for the second half of the expedition. Here's what's happened so far...
Homecoming Hole
The new cave of the year has been a smashing success. Found early in the expedition, Homecoming has been an excellent training ground for many of our expedition newbies. Over time the cave has been pushed below 200m which includes a 60m pitch, no easy feat for a tired caver. Up steam is a large rift traverse being pursued by Haydon and Jon primarily. Down stream there are many tight rifts left to be explored.
Two teams gearing up to push leads in Homecoming
Fisch Gesicht
A promising lead from last year is still going strong. We have dropped this below 200m as well. It has reached an exciting pitch called Ulysses. Attempts have been made to Traverse around to find an appropriate place to drop the pitch, however the other side of the shaft is no more appealing. This is creating and interesting challenge for our cavers.
Surveying in Fisch Gesicht
Tunnocks
We had our first camping trip down Tunnocks this week. Chris, Antony and Lydia pursued leads down Beckoning Silence with much success; running out of rope, hangers and stoke all at the same time. Another aim of the camp trip was to test out our cave radio systems. Top camp was very disappointed with the failure of the system. Mean while the campers had a good laugh as they were able to hear top camps attempts to contact them but a fault in their microphone prevented them from responding. This lead them to name the continuation of Beckoning Silence, Radio Silence. Plans to fix the microphone fault are in the works and will hopefully soon have a fully functioning radio system! Further trips into camp have been prevented by a lack of hangers and maillons! Too much success! New ones have been bought and exploration will continue.
Balcony
Last year a lead was found that had been walked past for 5 years! A small crawl leads to an open chamber which was being pushed at the end of last year. Becka and George (with a rotating cast of helpers) have been putting in the hours this year to extend this further. First ones to leave in the morning and the last ones back. They dropped a pitch, Hangman, through a tight squeeze and into surveyed passage. A quick trip down the hill showed that they had connected in to Tunnocks! Dropping further down Hangman lead to a 200m pitch series, Mongol Rally. 50m from the floor is a swing into a window, The Pit Stop. From The Pit Stop horizontal blowing phreatic passage slopes down pushed ~500m and still going. At the floor of the Mongol Rally more phreatic tubes where found ~20m in diameter! Becka and George managed a whole kilometre of surveying in a day! They popped out on a window to a large camber, climbed down and found that it had been surveyed. Another connection. Putting the data in to survex showed that they were just above camp Kraken. A potential new way into camp. Many exciting things going on in Balcony.
The top of Mongol Rally
Looking to the Future
Our overarching aim is to connect our Schwarzmooskogel system to the Sch?neberg system to the north west. Homecoming and Fisch Gesicht are heading in the right direction, one step closer to our goal. looking forward we would like to pursue a connection from the existing system to these two caves. With Homecoming an hour and a half walk away from top camp we are working on setting up a satellite camp in the west to minimise the commute.
The new bivy cave. The floor has been flattened out and terraced to accommodate 6 cavers.
This year we have had an influx of student cavers from many different universities. We will have 14 cavers on their first expedition from 6 universities, Cambridge, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Bristol and Nottingham. We are working on developing our newer cavers with surveying and bolting as well as general caving skills to pass down knowledge and experience to continue to develop our expedition as well as student caving in the UK.
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-07-30
Paul Fox,
base camp - expo laptop
mq extension enabled on mercurial by Paul Fox.
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-07-30
Michael Sargent,
Surface - Cycling up toll road
[from Callout Book ]
Cycling to the top of the toll road. Depart 0730, Callout 1600.
1h20 up, 12:55 down. [phone number redacted]
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-07-30
Paul Fox,
Surface - Walk around Grundlsee
[from Callout Book ]
Walk around Grundlsee ~ 18km. Clockwise direction. Expected back~1730-1800.
[phone number redacted]
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-07-30
Philip Sargent,
base camp - "Receipt for expo members of VfHO for 2018"
from Robert Seebacher
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-01
Philip Sargent,
plateau - Solo walking in Stumern Alm area
Attempt to reach Futility Series mythical potential entrance from below.
Cycled to N.end of Altaussee lake (S.route). This took 1 hour from base camp.
Saw entrance in hillside 30m higher and about 1km on Loser side which might be a wet-weather resurgence.
Track up is very cyclable to a (locked) hut [Stumern Alm, 813m] where it stops & there is a steeply ascending
rough path (signposted to Appelhaus) up the Trisselwand side of the valley. I parked bike.
I decided to go directly up the Loser side: "Oh Yes", I thought, "10-15 minutes
and I'll be past those trees and into the clear grass/rock/scree area". 1 hour later
I was in a rock shelter [wpt C05 in gpslog N 47.660271646 E013.804951357 942m],
still in the trees, and I could now see that the track I should have been on was much higher,
and I also had no easy safe way on up this side of the valley. The dry rock shelter is completely
hidden by trees until you are close to it.
The geology is very promising though - at the hut the big face [Pfenningofen] is well-bedded with a couple of useful-looking faults.
I had got to within 600m horizontally of where I wanted to be to look for entrance, but also 600m too low.
Aborted cycle ride home in Bad Aussee for emergency ice cream.
Philip
PS Nettles! Flies !! aarghhh !!!
PPS The better way to do this approach would be to take a jeep up the correct track (the one that says "No Bicycles")
all the way to the road head at Oberwasser Alm at 1353m, and then traverse round to the right area
above the tree line but below the bunde line.
Departed base camp 06:35, returned 13:05
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-01
Cat Hulse, Paul Fox, Michael Sargent, Adam Henry, Adelaide Diesbach,
FGH - Liquid Luck onwards
We started the trip to Fischgesicht with 3 other people (Cat, Cat's Husband, Paul), but they decided to turn back before Liquid Luck because Paul was being slow.
Michael & I made it to the pushing front and bolted the small pitch at the front of the 45 degree slope (the hole in the wall was a dead end, see previous report).
We climbed down the slope, squeezed through boulders to the right and landed on a small, round passage leading off to the right, with sand covering the ground.
I followed the passage to a bend and saw that it continued - and it got bigger!
I screamed with excitement; Michael was pretty fucking pleased with our discovery.
Since we didn't have any surveying gear (Cat realised her disto wasn't calibrated as we were getting changed) we decided to scoop the fuck out of it (or rather, I ran off ahead screaming while Michael was trying to convince me to leave some for the surveyors).
The passage alternated between large phreatics and large rifts, branching off several times.
We covered maybe around 200m before we decided to turn around; the passage continued.
We had a little time before out turn-around time, so Michael started to bolt the huge pitch that is parallel to Rubble Rumble until we got bored and decided to go back to camp early, giving us enough time to brag about our findings to whoever was still awake.
T/U: 8.0 hours
2018-08-02
Ryan Boultbee, Alex Stirling, Manfred Wuits, Wookey,
Tunnocks - testing to Balkonhöhle Connection - Part One
The initial stage of the trip was navigated quickly and easily by Wookey
- having previously surveyed up to starfish junction and being well-acquainted with the system.
Beyond the junction we relied on a pixelated survey, some detailed notes, and
hand-drawn survey, all of which Wookey had nerded at base camp.
Our journey to March of the Penguins was somewhat "exploratory" as weattempted
tofind the correct passage forward. The trip was halted at an unnamed pitch.
Unknown to us at the time the journey across the pitch required a traverse. We had mistakenly
rigged the pitch for a descent. Having run out of time we started our return journey with
the hope of returning.
Additionally the trip allowed the team to resurvey 6 legs which may have been
contributing to the survey error in that branch(?).
T/U: 10.0 hours
2018-08-02
Manfred Wuits, Typhon King, Adelaide Diesbach,
FGH - Lead after Rubble Rumble
Followed the lead after Rubble Rumble, surveyed for 6 hours, 60+ survey legs total. Good trip.
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-02
Haydon Saunders, Jon Toft,
Homecoming - Lizard King
A series of 4 trips bolting the Lizard King which is a rift with a strong draft
in Homecoming Hole (CUCC-2018-DM07).
Reached by doing traverse 10m over floor of Gromit, and taking right/(straight ahead) (not left)
at the first junction.
A series of more or less exciting traverses lead to a phreatic maze with a large phreatic tube
over a major rift around it.
We bolted against the draft, using a 50m rope for the first section, ending on a small
ledge (3m pitch).
A further (more exciting) traverse along the top of the rift continues to the right
until a sudden end after 15 min.
A 40m (?) pitch (1 dev, 2 rebelays) drops into a large muddy rift.
From a ledge, a 4-bolt traverse pushed the continuation against the draft,into a further
(larger) rift that would require bolting.
Further leads in the opposite direction or further down the rift (BIG RIFT!).
Alternatively the opposite direction of the phreatic tube from the Lizard King.
Lots of bolting, were were very cold.
Haydon says he was a 2 on a 1-10 scale where 1 is frozen solid.I was also very cold.
In other words, an altogether excellent pushing front with a brilliant windchill effect.
T/U: 5.0 hours
2018-08-02
Cat Hulse, Adam Henry, Michael Sargent,
FGH - survey
Set off for Fischgesicht, to survey the shaft scooped on the 1st (See Adelaide 01/08/2018).
Surveyed down the 3m rope we put in, and took a right at the crossroads just at the bottom of the scree slope (crossroads at point 5).
Took the left turning we first came to (point 8) and followed nice vedose dry passage until it came into much largber phreas (point 22).
Followed left past where a rift came into the floor of the phreas, which we called Bird Arrow rift, because ofa peculiar rock marking.
We left Bird Arrow rift for Adelaide & co (02/08/2018), and continued down the phreas.
The walking surface lowered down to the level of the water in the rift, where there was a pool, then climbed back out again.
Traversed over the top of a pitch that followed the rift with the water, and the phreas continued upward.
Eventually, the large phreas continued up into the ceiling, and the low level route passes through some small boulder choke into a sandy tube.
The high phreas would be accessible with a traverse line for a climb up that is too exposed on its own.
T/U: 5.0 hours
2018-08-02
Nadia, Becka,
Balkon - to Pitstop (off Mongol Rally)
T/U: 10 hours
Down to Pitstop + started with the RH lead (pitstop 2) lead at the start.
Over the big boulder quickly led to a big pitch which we assumed was Mongol Rally though
George disagreed so it would be worth trying to find out where it went.
Next went left at the water inlet then left at the T-junction + surveyed some easy, long legs
(pitstop 3) which ended in a drafting pitch which is a good lead.
Third we went to the N end of Pitstop (pitstop_4) & it turned out you didn't need
to rig it as a pitch, you could crawl down on the right.
This led to a drippy chamber with avens. The only lead was the pitch on the left, drafting
but smalland the sound of water. Finally I put in 3 bolts for the traverse over the
far side of Pitstop whilst Nadia set off out.
[Images here in logbook have been moved to "Balkon - to Hangman's-> Myopia + Mongol Rally" where they belong several pages earlier ]
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-03
Ryan Boultbee, Ruairidh MacLeod, Wookey,
Tunnocks - testing to Balkonhöhle Connection - Part Two
Having been confused by the pitch that required to be raversed rather than descended,
another (?) consulting other cavers, we returned the next day. The journey into the system was
quickeras the route had now been rehearsed by the group. As the traverse was being re-rigged additional re-surveying was completed.
After pushing forward it was found that we did not have enough rope to to complete the
pitch down into Icecock (even after de-rigging the traverse line).Unfortunately no cave description
for this route existed, as such, the amount of rope required was unknown.
Future trips should attempt to generate such notes for the interest of future trips.
Once again wew ran out of time, and this timerope. However the trip still provided
additional survey results with accompanying elevations (sections).
On the return journey Ruairidh rigged the traverse line with 5 slings hooked one to another
(in the interest of speed), however it was debated if this was in fact quicker.
A future trip would require more rope (greater than a 13m and 22m).
T/U: 10.0 hours
2018-08-03
Philip Sargent,
plateau - "Lookfutile3"
Walking and scrambling on the hillside/cliff below the main entrance to 115 (Schnellzughöhle)
to try to find an entrance to the Futily Series (again).
Up at 6am with Luke and Rachel, hitched back to Bad Aussee at the end of the day and Wookey
collected me from there.
On the mountain I finally got tot he right area where it was possible
to explore and make progress: several limestone cliffs and benches - all below bunde level - with
dappled shade of beeches and pine trees, lots of artfully arranged rocks & short grass & wild flowers.
Found several dripping slots but no sensible entrances in this area. I don't trust the altitudes (and sometimes the positions) from my GPS
in this area - which on average is tipped 30 degrees from the vertical - i.e. it's really all just a broken cliff.
Several game and hunters' tracks. Lots of rillen karren clambering.
After climbing up a little cliff - easy enough but something I didn't fancy reversing - I found myself in tick bunde.
After a bit I tried going underneath the bunde and found myself looking at a tiny entrance which
was giving a slight draft [N 47.66729 E013.80959 alt.1526m using my Garmin eTrex Venture Cx].
It is almost possible to get into it but it is only
15m east of cucc-ps01-2018. NB it's not the choked pit, it's 5m east of the
choked pit, over the edge of a bunde-bedecked ledge.
I went into cucc-ps01-2018 for 6 minutes to get 20m in (it descends due west (270 M) at 30 degrees from the horizontal)
vadose relic with lots of boulders. I got to a big rock I couldn't quite be sure of climbing back up.
Needs surveying and tagging.
Removed water-collection poly-sheet from 115 ent. Now only has 9 litres of water and some flapjack & museli in it.
T/U: 0.1 hours
2018-08-03
Cat Hulse, Adam Henry, Michael Sargent,
FGH - 3rd time
Returning to Fischgesicht for the 3rd time, quickly descended to the pushing front.
Began by surveying large chamber leading to pitch.
Rock fall down the pitch timed to 3.8 seconds.
Then set off to see which routes Adelaide, Typhon, and Manfred had surveyed the previous day.
After following all their routes, we spotted a couple of ~100m linking passages had not been surveyed, so cleaned up all that.
Continued to Eldritch Eyeholes chamber and knocked off a few leads to ends.
Similar story for Coconut Chamber, where 1 lead was surveyed back round to link to previous passage, 2 other A leads were also joined together 15m beyond the chamber (rift + small hole in wall).
Small passage/rift ends as water falls from roof aven.
Draft continues to come from small passage soon leads to rift which would require protection!
Outcome of trip was a lot of tidying up work, consolidated into a few good leads.
Time in 10:40, time out 20:40
T/U: 10.0 hours
2018-08-03
Max Weiser, Luke Stangroom, Jacob Pulaho,
Balkon - Pitstop
Arrived at Pitstop to find George who was in the group in front to have finished bolting the traverse around to the other side. Passage was large walking passage with nice mud formations in floor. Passage ends at a pitch with a dodgy bridge. Half way-ish between the traverse and pitch was a flatout crawl on right. Crawl was unpleasant and sharp (I forgot kneepads!!) and was sloped upwards. Passage (including crawl unitil become too tight) was surveyed.
Pitch wasn't dropped.
We then head back to Pitstop and then attempt to bolt a rift but then the floor fell beath and scared me and we decided to call it a day.
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-04
Philip Sargent,
base camp - Expo T-shirts arrived at Gasthof
2x S,
3x XL,
4x L,
lots of M (some male, some female, no distinction in label)
T/U: 0 hours
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-04
George Breley, Adam Aldridge, Becka Lawson,
Balkon - to Grand Prix -> Camp Kraken -> Radio Silence + Scum of the Earth + Octopus Garden ->derig)
[Goal]: Derig Octopussy & Tentacle Traverse + camp to top of Kraken then derig out of Tunnocks to bottom of
Number of the Beast.
Caved 12:00-22:00 on 3rd, 11:00-23:45 on 4th, 10:00-19:30 on 5th,
setting off from top of Kraken ~15:00 after ferrying camp to the top of it in 5 prussics.
"This is not a 3-man derig" was Geroge's plaintive assessment. We'll see.
Day 1
in Balkon, George finished off the traverse opposite Pitstop, disappointing Luke who'd bombed down to do it. We then
continued to the bottom of Mongol Rally + George put a couple more bolts in the Floodland pitch
that he, Jacob+ Olly had started int he previous tripbut it looked like a major job so he
derigged and we went down Grand Prix past Littleboy to the "à cheval" ridge
and dropped Suction Cup pitch (rigging topo on previous page).
This led to a rather confusing slopy area which we clambered up steeply until it ended in an aven.
We lost George for some stressful minutes - he'd dropped down a steep, muddy phreatic tube +
struggled to return. We then packed up + left the 53m rope + some hangers as own own bags
still seemed full + I thought we had a long way to go but in fact we were in camp Kraken
in under an hour.
Day 2
We took our long rope +14m rope to the muddy, drafty end of Radio Silence where the previous
(Anthony/Chris/Hydra) camping trip had got to + unenthusiastically started to rig (George) and
to shiver (Becka + Adam). After some time (we cracked and got into the bothy) George
shouted that he was past the worst of the drips
(we're haviung a drought, itwould probably be nasty in the rain)
+ we should come down.
I was really in the mood to jack it off - it was sharp, wet cold and vertical -
but George perked up after spotting what loooked like a floor down a c2 gwt(?)
after the end of Scum of the Earth. We'd finished the long rope so put the 14m on the
final drop end - hurrah - it first revealed a floor and we were in a big complex chamber.
We set off surveying , trying to cheer up a chilly Adam. There were lovely marked - and nippled - and streaked -
mud slopes and a proper stream with sandy then muddy banks leading to a small
sump. Just before, on the mud bank, I spotted a tiny seedling - "there's a sprout!"
"A what?" We all stared at it, bathing it with light for the first time in its hopeless life, then surveyed
the upper sections + finally, down the boulder slope, we got into the upstream canyon.
We followed this to a c2 then ate & I suggested it was time to head home but I was overruled
by George ripping up the c2 +roving about a beuatiful pool. We followed and there was,
indeed, a gorgeous green and blue poollike a weird eye. We took photos then surveyed further
until the passage narrowed to a tall rift.
I pursuaded a reluctant George that it was really time to go. We then headed out with George
derigging Scum of Earth (big swing on the second rebelay) then me derigging Radio
Silence + Beckoning Silence then back to camp with George getting the short straw of
derigging Tentacle Traverse which was apparently a struggle given his stature.
Worryingly no water had collected duringt he day but I worked out a system using
a bin bag tocollect and funnel drips in to the Daren drum + that worked well.
Day 3
"Are we going to do this?" We started with relays up Kraken as we had only 4 tackle sacks. George first
with a monster rope bag + drill then me with another monster rope bag + hangers then Adam with another
monster rope bag + a bag with the gear we needed to take out of camp
including a full to bursting shit drum - George was the last to dump and he grumbled that he'd been
set up as he had to squish in the final bag.
At this point we realised that we hadn't nearly enough tackle sacks so Large Marge made an
appearance - the massive orange survival bag filled with 3x sleeping bags and 3x Alpinexes and 4x karrimats.
George was skeptical + I was racked with the giggles (she was nearly as tall as he was but considerably fatter)
but in fact he shot up Kraken with her, leaving me to regret letting him off taking a normal tackle sack
as well.
That left me to bring up the rest of the camp in two tackle sacks, aDaren drum, + some claptrap,
derigging en route.
At the top we sorted the pile of gear whilst Adam headed up + out of Tunnocks.
There was a moderate-sized expedition's worth of gear left there - at least 400m of rope, over 100 hangers, drill, hand-bolting kit, slings, tent, sleeping + cooking gear etc.
Adam had the bag own(?) kit then I went and George derigged. I pursuaded him we should take 3
tackle sacks between us onthe derig. Mistake. I broke George. He ended up at the top of Window Twankey's
with a fulltackle sack and most of Big Bertha full of disgustingly muddy rope _ got, erm, cross.
By then I'd dumped my bag at the bottom of Procrastination + I'd headed back down to fetch another bag
but when I met Adam at the top of Number of the Beast he said I needed to be nice to George so
I took Adam's bag & G+A went bag-free then we stopped order(?) and let George escape. Less burdened,
we slogged out.I gave the bag to Adam on the entrance pitch then was nearly humiliated as, on a flapjack high,
he powered up + nearly caught me up. George was sunbathing on the surface + led us on a forced march
back to camp which was ... deserted.
[This trip also desribed in UK Caving blog https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=23424.msg299287#msg299287] text below by Adam Aldridge:
This will be a summary of the last Kraken camp of 2018, and maybe ever.
The trip was partaken by George, Becka, and myself (Adam). We went underground in Balcony on Friday the 3rd of August around mid day and surfaced from Tunnocks around 8pm on Sunday.
Following a generous helping of faff resulting in an irate Becka we set of towards Balcony with optimism. This would be my first ever underground camp trip, so there was a pinch of excited apprehension in my mood.
After the necessary commute in balcony we made it to the Mongol Rally, this 200m shaft, sloping slightly from the vertical, was by far the biggest i've ever seen. The decent, seemingly endless, is mostly experienced with blackness above and below.
After a short journey from the base of The Mongol Rally feeling suitably far from home, we started work at the pushing front.
Day one was finished with around 250m surveyed; George had dropped a pitch which led into large airy passages. Throughout the day George had been commenting on invasive smells. Most of these instances were a result of Becka taking out her pet mouldy cheese. I quietly found this rather amusing.
George and I awoke after a night at camp to find Becka doing lots of productive things, she had checked the radio (unfortunately without success) and was well on the way to making breakfast. Led by Becka's enthusiasm, day two was begun with less faff than the previous. We set of along Tentacle Traverse and down Octo Pussy towards the front.
I was feeling remarkably weary on this second day. There was point, as George and Becka shot off, where I was nearly defeated by a section of upward sloping mud.
An arduous (for me) and increasingly muddy commute later, we reached the pushing front: a muddy wet pitch, great! Feeling a touch despondent at this point, we pushed on; George started bolting the pitch while Becka and I waited at the top. Waiting very quickly got cold so in an attempt to alleviate this situation we started jumping about. The nature of this was quite comical, it was a fusion between a Zumba class routine and the irregular movements of telly tubies who have just been exited by the sun baby.
To our surprise and elation, the muddy gryke of a lead dropped into a dry spacious expanse with multiple ways on. We began surveying down a railway tunnel passage sloping slightly down. This, to our bewilderment, led to a gentle meandering river banked by sloped volumes of mud. All of a sudden, Becka became exited, George and I rushed over, she had found a sprout in the mud! A surreal occurrence at ~700m below. The sapling drank in our light deeply as we admired it's lone perseverance.
A few pictures later, we moved on, only to find a sump. This would have been annoying if not for the alternative upstream continuation.
Half an hour or so up this lead, much to my relief, we stopped on a muddy bank for a lunch break. The only way on was a 3m climb into a relic inlet. Becka argued that we should turn back as it was getting late (a sensible idea to be fair). Despite Becka's standpoint, George and I were up for going on. With Irate protest from Becka, George began the climb. Out of sight, George began talking in awe of an interesting blue lake. With more protesting from Becka, I climbed up as well.
The pool in question was like something out of a sci fi film, Its colour and complexity was preternatural. I could explain it to you by a picture able to convey more than words.
With rekindled enthusiasm for exploration we continued deeper into a truly surreal environment, the vast relic stream passage was littered with artefacts of its past; here and there, pools of immaculate water lay undisturbed for presumably quite a while; marbled fractal mud formations encrusted the lower surfaces; bizarre spiky rock formations en-habited the walls, formed by a vigorous torrent, long forgotten.
With over 400m on the PDA, we returned to camp. The commute seemed friendlier, for me at least, with a sense of accomplishment under the belt.
Waking up for the second time in absence of sunlight, the task for the 'day' was to de-rig and prusik out.
The camp was packed up and raised to the top of Kraken in five caries up the pitch (one by me two each by George and Becka). George competed a particularly obscene carry: a huge orange survival bag tied at the top with cord, he looked like a surreal speleo version of Santa Claus.
Once camp was sorted, we began the long ascent to the surface. Becka and I set of with some bags of rope while the machine that is George began to de-rig the pitches.
This was my first trip to Kraken camp, but it might also be the last. However as one good thing comes to an end, the next is on the horizon: with the persistent efforts of this year (especially by George and Becka) a new region of Balkony has proved promising, and so, the camp will be reformed there with new opportunities awaiting.
« Last Edit: August 09, 2018, 08:58:29 am by adam74aldridge »
T/U: 55.0 hours
2018-08-04
Rachel Turnbull, Luke Stangroom, Nadia Raeburn,
Homecoming - derig
[from Callout book]
Callout 8am on the 5th.)
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-04
Alex Stirling, Ruairidh MacLeod, Jacob Pulaho,
Homecoming - derig team 2
[from Callout book]
Callout 8am on the 5th.)
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-04
Max Weiser,
topcamp - derig bivvy cave
[from Callout book]
Callout 10pm
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-05
Jacob Pulaho, Ruairidh MacLeod,
Homecoming - shallow leads
[from Callout book]
Callout 10pm
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-05
Rachel Turnbull,
Expo - Final Homecoming Stint
Blog Author: RTurnbullIt?s coming home: Final Homecoming Stint
Homecoming is a cave found this year, approximately 90 minutes walk from our bivouac on the Loser plateau that has just gone and gone! Unfortunately, it has sunk lots of resrouces and plans have been formulated to set up a satellite bivi in the future, where our expedition aims will consolidate underground efforts.
The derig
Despite our best efforts, we arrived at Homecoming to begin the derig, a cave we had little information about, but that did not extend much further than a junction, 200m down. Luke raced ahead and left Nadia and I remarking at the cave?s remarkable features; howling icy draught, deep free hanging pitches and long, low hanging traverse lines over rift passages.
Having entered the cave, thinking we were going to derig 200m of pitches, we found shit tons of rope after where we had expected to start, perhaps twice as much rope as we expected. Luke began the derig, Nadia ferrying tackle bags and myself ?processing rope? and packing bags. After an ambitious few hours, moving 200m of rope, we arrived at our preconceived start point. Here we plotted our
PAELLA: Pulling A Extremely Long Length Altogether.
None of the 3 of us had ever ?paella?ed rope before but we knew we were not going to be able to prussik it all out, easily. We sent Luke up first with the rope tied to him and all the metalwork, ~35 handers+malloins and the emergency kit. Nadia and I derided the traverse to the big 120m pitch. With each bolt ~5m apart and no handholds to speak of, we questioned our sanity, but pushed through. Luke was much faster than our derigging effort and pulled our rope chain up 80m to the ledge, prussiked the tackle sack up 40m and came back down to meet Nadia on the ledge again. After a bit of discussion as to how to pull rope up two pitches at the same time they figured it out. Luke prussiked up the 40 and created a new pile as Nadia pulled the ropes I was derigging up. Very smooth.
At the top of the 40m our chain was over 300m long and we were entering rift passage. Luckily the timing was right and we were met by Ruairidh, Jacob and Alex, who supported the transportation through a climbing rift, by acting as human-deviations getting the chain ~60m through twists and turns to the next pitch head. The rest of the trip was smooth sailing with only a few rocks being dropped and one hanger escaping out of a hole in the bottom of the tackle sack. The final length that lay piled outside the cave entrance was over 500m and bigger than the average caver. An estimated 70 hangers and maillons plus deviation crabs were also brought out. Cavers returned to camp for 2am.
Man hours: 66
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-07
Wookey, Paul Fox, Natalie Uomini,
plateau - Eiskelle - Surface Prospecting
[date variously as 1st July or 11th July, but must have been 7th August. - editor]
We aimed to re-locate several caves that had been recored in 2004/5/6 and were within 300m of Top Camp. How hard can it be???
Well, 8 hours later, lost and dehydrated, we managed to get back to Top Camp just 20 minutes before our callout!
Entering the coordinates into the GPS and walking in a direct heading was met repeatedly by either thick bunde or sheer cliffs going up or down! While we were lost we found several new caves, which we duly recorded and surveyed. They are very close to the path to Tunnocks, so we suspect they were either ignored or not recorded when first explored. We left the big pitch for another time and surveyed the small free-climbable hole. Then we got lost again looking for 2004-18.
Finally we located it and 2004-16 and -17.
The next day we returned to 2004-18 with Wookey and descended it. Luckily the spits were in place so we just had to chuck a rope down and a rope protector. A huge snow cone met us half way down on a ledge we could walk around. Paul drilled two holes and installed 2 hiltis and rigged the way down. We climbed down the ice slope (with rope) and landed on the boulder floor at the base of the snow cone. My first ice climbing experience - and I hope my last! We got hypotherimc while rigging the cave (Eiskeller - Ice House) and we got heat exhaustion while on the plateau. Lovely day at expo! Wookey was very helpful while we located 2004-18 (on an easy path not far from Top Camp) and again while rigging the cave - always great to have an experienced oldie on the team!
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-07
Cat Hulse,
Surface - rope carry from Homecoming
[from Callout book]
Callout 10pm
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-07
Ryan Boultbee, Adam Aldridge, Wookey,
FGH - try to connect to HB
[Wook:] Went over to Fishface to see if we could connect it to Happy Butterfly.
Looked in right direction but didn't find anything very interesting - a bit of
[squiggle] [squiggle] [squiggle] [squiggle] to known stuff.
[Ryan takes over writeup:]
There was a hunting [?] [squiggle] potential lead, after some rambling to
decide to [squiggle] a 'fishermans hole' on route to a rift choke ahead
(there we had [squiggle] [squiggle] dear bits).
The hole that we were interested in appeared to have been previously dropped -
a hanger and bolt we insitu, even if slightly rusted.
We dropped the pitch (20m?) into a large rift with a distinctive largesquare boulder wedged in the passage.
Ryan [squiggle] the lead to the left; a rigt
heading down which choked out, however when surveyed by Wook [squiggle]
[squiggle] survey stations were found.
Nevertheless they re-surveyed the passage.
The second pitch was drilled and better to drop a new pitch, again about
20m down to a false floor in the rift. After descending Wookey
declared Ryan's gardening (the removal of loose and potentially
dangerous rock) as [squiggle] and proceeded, assisted by Adam,
to kick down the loose rock-garden.
At the bottom of the pitch we found leads in both directions, however
decided to push down the rift (following the airflow).
A traverse line was rigged across a ropey section of false floor
which dropped down onto a larger pitch.
Another test conducted by Adam measured the rockfall from topto [squiggle] impact as 2.1st~20m
a distance we could not reach with the rope we had.
We used the left-over rope to assist in rigging a Y-hang and setting bolts, however,
did not push the mystery pitch.
We left the pitches rigged.
Afte Wookey [squiggle] the survey [squiggle] conducted throughout the trip
to [squiggle] if the new passage connected (potentially) to the existing system or
could be pointing in a new direction.
All in allthe trip was a [squiggle] learning experience for both
Adam and Ryan to both survey technique, rigging, bolting and most importantly gardening!
T/U: ? hours
[Mongol Rally rigging guide here (Becka's handwriting?, in the written logbook moved
back to this location in this online version]
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-08
Ryan Boultbee, Wookey, Max Weiser,
Tunnocks - Resurvey trip down Tunnocks - 1
1
We did a trip down Tunnocks to do a resurvey and a connection to "Balcony".
We resurvey part in March of the Penguins in Balcony and the pitch dumped into the Frozen North.
Also surveyed a new passage there that just looped around.
T/U: 15.0 hours
2018-08-08
Ryan Boultbee, Wookey, Max Weiser,
Tunnocks - Resurvey trip down Tunnocks - 2
2
[Editor note: very bad handwriting indeed. Please try harder Max.
This is almost useless.
The scanned original text is in
expofiles/writeups/2018/logbook.pdf
if you want to try deciphering it yourself.]
3rd attempt on the penguin fellatio resurvey.Took another 50mof rope & 6mm hangers
after not having enough gear last time. And a Monday callout so we had enough time.
Got to the far end with all the shit to realise that we only had 6 hangers
due to taking others out last time! Doh! Another failure was just too much
so Wook decided to go all the wy back down March of the Penguins, [sqiggle], High & [squiggle]
to steal hangers out of the Usual Suspects traverse rigging.
Solo speed carry was [squiggle] fun and he took 25 mins there, 20 mins derigging and
30 minutes back.
Max & Ryan got v.cold waiting. Max rigged the pitch whilst Wook and Ryan re-did Pengun Fellatio.
Pitch survey [?] was a pain and it wasn't possible to see [squiggle] [squiggle] each other
so we [squiggle] a [sqiggle] at top & bottom.
Max did great job of rigging where Wook couldn't reach. Down in Icecockwe joined up survey and
went for a look round. Ryan found a scrotty bit not on the survey & got explorationfever
so took off SRT [squiggle] to shove himself through & make a loop.
So then we had to survey it.
Ryan learned a bit about surveying.
Decided we couldn't get to the dodgy leg in Frozen North without wire [?]
so headed out. Max derigged. Then rerigged MOTP from [squiggle] 32 back to chmaber
above spiral around. Rebelay [?] existing points is very time consuming.
After a while we couldn't find the [squiggle] & made up out on [squiggle]
linking to [squiggle] we could find.
Finally staggered out, including the [squiggle][squiggle][squiggle] by 2am.
* Looked up snow slope in Frozen North. Max got up to where there were no more foot[squiggle]
~10m up. Quite [squiggle]. There must be an entrance somewhere.
T/U: 10.0 hours
2018-08-08
Paul Fox, Natalie Uomini,
plateau - Top Camp - Surface Prospecting - Old & New Caves - 8.5 hours
T/U: 25 mins
New cave 2018-NTU-01
Paul had prepared a list of some caves found in 2004 which were within 300m of Top Camp.
In the blazing heat of morning, Nat and Paul set off with packs full of SRT kits,
50m rope, hangers, drill, bolting kit, oversuits, helmets and lights.
First we went the wrong way and ended up meandering through bunda above top camp.
Finally we set a bearing towards one of the caves in question, and this took us on
a scramble parallel to (east of, uphill from) the path to Tunnocks.
We bumbled onto a small cave entrance which we named 2018-NTU-01 located in a
gully filled with wild chives.
The entrance is below a large fixed boulder with the tag on its SW side.
I (Nat) squeezed down through some
dodgy loose boulders at the entrance, but could not get further down safely.
I could see beyond the boulder choke that there was a vertical shaft,
smooth-sided, which we measured by Disto as 2.7m deep, probably landing
onto a gravel floor as judged by the sound of throwing rocks down.
This vertical shaft appears to turn a corner into a rift heading South-West
(downslope).
No noticeable draft, but it was hard to get my head right in.
The shaft is definitely big enough for a person to stand in comfortably.
With a bit of tidying up the big loose boulders inside the entrance,
one could get into the shaft and see where the rift goes.
Data from Nat's GPS (Garmin Oregon 650):
1834m, N47°41.518, E13°49.298
UTM UPS: 33T 0411579, 5282737
GPS accuracy not noted for this point, but the other points this day had 3m accuracy.
This cave was tagged by Nat & Neil a few days later on Aug. 13.
To reach this cave easily from Top Camp, just follow the Tunnocks path until
the cave marked on GPS as "1623.p2001-02", then turn right (uphill) and go up
a small chive & boulder-filled gully until you see the big boulder with the tag on it.
Rift hole to descend
Several meters downhill from 2018-NTU-01, in passing we waypointed on the
GPS a "rift hole to descend", which looked like a promising hole that is
nowhere near any already-catalogued waypoints.
1846m, UTM: 33T 0411511, 5282847. (no photo)
We finally rejoined the path to Tunnocks (which we should have used
all along) and after a while, we waypointed on the GPS another hole
that's most likely the same as catalogued 1623.p2002-07.
2018-PF-01,02,03
Arriving at the Big Cairn (GPS coords UTM: 33T 0411542, 5282881)
which is on the Tunnocks path, we followed the 2005 instructions
and veered left on an alleged heading towards the fabled caves
2004-18, 17, and 16 (unfortunately the instructions proved
impossible to follow; see our updated writeup for the best
approach to 2004-18). Directly off the Tunnocks path we got
distracted as we came upon 3 shafts which were not on the GPS
catalogue: we named them 2018-PF-01 (which we tagged; see our
survey of the same day), 2018-PF-02 (which we tagged the next
day with Wookey; undescended), and 2018-PF-03
(which Paul tagged some days later).
2018-PF-01 Tag: 1857m, UTM: 33T 0411526, 5282885
2018-PF-02: 1859m, UTM: 33T 0411540, 5282900
2018-PF-03: 1858m, UTM: 33T 0411530, 5282893
GPS with 3m accuracy for all.
2018-PF-01 is a 2m-diameter shaft with an easy climb down
to a mossy slope. We surveyed it [see Paul's excellent digital
survey].
2018-PF-02 is an impressive, open surface shaft about 3.5m
diameter and 11.5m deep (as measured by Disto). It looks like it
continues horizontally into a rift heading upslope. There is a
good spot to drill bolts for rigging where we installed the tag.
2018-PF-03 is an open rift between PF-01 and PF-02 about
5.6m deep, 1.75m wide, 4.6m long (as measured by Disto).
Paul climbed down PF-03 and found it was choked at the end
nearest (heading towards) the big shaft PF-02. Thus, it
dashed all our hopes of finding a free-climbable access to the big shaft.
2018-NTU-02
Afterwards we circled painfully through obstacles of
larch and cliffs until we stumbled across another interesting
hole, which we named 2018-NTU-02.
1861m, UTM: 33T 0411522, 5282905, GPS with 3m accuracy.
It is a window in the side of a surface shaft filled with
grass. Nat climbed down into it using a handline tied with
loops, which proved essential.
The small shaft is vertical
and has a depth of 4.6m (as measured by Disto) and a
diameter of about 2 to 3m. A passage extends about 2m
horizontally at the base of this small shaft, ending in a
rubble choke which is the underside of the large surface
shaft. [See scanned sketch in our survey notes.]
We drilled and installed a Hilti, but did not have any tags,
and we were unable to return to put the tag in later.
The tag has been made and is sitting in the Tags tub
at top camp.
A big opening in the side of the mountain
Next we headed again for the mythical 2004-18, and reached the
south-eastern edge of a huge steep-sided valley: Cubic Valley.
(Note: the next day we found a much easier way with Wookey, by
going from the Tunnocks path round the northern edge of the valley,
as recorded in our uploaded GPS track and described in the updated
Approach to 2004-18.) Following the southern edge of the cliff,
we found a way to climb down into the valley. From the eastern edge
of this valley is visible a large opening in the opposite (north side)
cliff, which I waypointed from my position. The opening should be
investigated, as it seems to be below Tunnocks.
Freezer Hole
In the lowest point of the eastern bowl of Cubic Valley is a small
hole in the rubble which emits freezing cold air.
We measured the temperature just inside the hole as 9°C,
compared to 18°C just outside the hole (in the shade)
(- and the temperature in the sun on the plateau that day
was about 30°C). This hole is choked with rubble, but it would
certainly be an interesting digging project for future Expos.
2004-18 and Mystery Shafts
Finally, heading westward down Cubic Valley towards the
Cube-Shaped Boulder, we reached the fabled cave. The whole
section of valley is full of tantalising deep shafts which
must be explored! Just beside 2004-18 we found another shaft
with a tag marked "AA 1 2017" but there is no recorded
survey, no database entry, no information anywhere about it .
Beside this shaft is another shaft with a snow plug
and 2 spits well positioned for rigging, but no visible
tag nor informations recorded.
Who could have been there?
2004-16 and 2004-17 and Maybe Hole
As it was getting late and our water bottles were empty and
it was very hot, we left our heavy caving gear in a hole and
tried to head back to top camp. On the way out of the valley
we found the other 2 caves 2004-16 and 2004-17, which we
waypointed on the GPS (1878m, N47° 41.594' E13° 49.150' and
1881m, N47° 41.608' E13° 49.150', respectively).
Then we struggled on through thick larch and sheer cliffs,
passing by a potential hole to explore (UTM: 33T 0411410,
5282786), in our dehydrated and grumpy state, until we saw someone
walking on the Fischgesicht path in the distance, which we could
eventually reach and thankfully followed back to Top Camp, arriving
just 20 minutes before our callout time!
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-09
Wookey, Paul Fox, Natalie Uomini,
Eiskeller - Revisiting 2004-18
T/U 2.5 hours
Surveying 2004-18 Eiskeller
The day after our eventful prospecting trip, Nat, Paul, and Wookey
returned to 2004-18 to survey it. We recovered our gear left in a hole,
and Paul rigged. Feeling hot, I went down in my t-shirt and trousers.
But during rigging and surveying I got so cold that I had to ask Wookey
to send my bag of layers down the rope. We landed on the snow plug which
had blocked further exploration in 2005, and rigged a rebelay from which
to climb down the snow plug. Our first ice climbing experience! At the
base of the snow plug is a chamber with a side aven and a rubble floor and
possibly a tiny gap round the western back end of the snowplug but we did
not fancy squeezing into it [see photos]. We decided to name it Eiskeller
(Ice House) as it looks just like
one.
We surveyed back up the pitch [see our survey and notes in
wallet 2018#44] and emerged
gratefully into the blazing sunshine, where Wookey had been sunbathing
the whole time. Then we took the easy hike back to Top Camp, which we'd
found on the way in [see our description in Approach and our GPS track].
Twin Caves
Along the northern edge of the valley approaching 2004-18 we waypointed
two shafts with snow inside. UTM: 33T 0411527, 5282982.
Summary: go back to Cubic Valley!!
Given the number of deep shafts in this valley, it's the most exciting
place to return to. The Cube-shaped boulder sitting above 2004-18 is
an easy landmark to find [see our photos]. The hike to/from Top Camp
is so quick & easy that it makes a perfect few days of rigging and
surveying for Expo novices or for people who don't want to go deep.
According to our GPS track, the hike is 670m and takes 23 minutes.
Be sure to wear an oversuit and layers!
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-09
Becka, George, adam aldridge,
Expo - the last Kraken camp of 2018
Blog Author: adam74aldridgeThis will be a summary of the last Kraken camp of 2018, and maybe ever.
The trip was partaken by George, Becka, and myself (Adam). We went underground in Balcony on Friday the 3rd of August around mid day and surfaced from Tunnocks around 8pm on Sunday.
Following a generous helping of faff resulting in an irate Becka we set of towards Balcony with optimism. This would be my first ever underground camp trip, so there was a pinch of excited apprehension in my mood.
After the necessary commute in balcony we made it to the Mongol Rally, this 200m shaft, sloping slightly from the vertical, was by far the biggest i've ever seen. The decent, seemingly endless, is mostly experienced with blackness above and below.
After a short journey from the base of The Mongol Rally feeling suitably far from home, we started work at the pushing front.
Day one was finished with around 250m surveyed; George had dropped a pitch which led into large airy passages. Throughout the day George had been commenting on invasive smells. Most of these instances were a result of Becka taking out her pet mouldy cheese. I quietly found this rather amusing.
George and I awoke after a night at camp to find Becka doing lots of productive things, she had checked the radio (unfortunately without success) and was well on the way to making breakfast. Led by Becka's enthusiasm, day two was begun with less faff than the previous. We set of along Tentacle Traverse and down Octo Pussy towards the front.
I was feeling remarkably weary on this second day. There was point, as George and Becka shot off, where I was nearly defeated by a section of upward sloping mud.
An arduous (for me) and increasingly muddy commute later, we reached the pushing front: a muddy wet pitch, great! Feeling a touch despondent at this point, we pushed on; George started bolting the pitch while Becka and I waited at the top. Waiting very quickly got cold so in an attempt to alleviate this situation we started jumping about. The nature of this was quite comical, it was a fusion between a Zumba class routine and the irregular movements of telly tubies who have just been exited by the sun baby.
To our surprise and elation, the muddy gryke of a lead dropped into a dry spacious expanse with multiple ways on. We began surveying down a railway tunnel passage sloping slightly down. This, to our bewilderment, led to a gentle meandering river banked by sloped volumes of mud. All of a sudden, Becka became exited, George and I rushed over, she had found a sprout in the mud! A surreal occurrence at ~700m below. The sapling drank in our light deeply as we admired it's lone perseverance.
A few pictures later, we moved on, only to find a sump. This would have been annoying if not for the alternative upstream continuation.
Half an hour or so up this lead, much to my relief, we stopped on a muddy bank for a lunch break. The only way on was a 3m climb into a relic inlet. Becka argued that we should turn back as it was getting late (a sensible idea to be fair). Despite Becka's standpoint, George and I were up for going on. With Irate protest from Becka, George began the climb. Out of sight, George began talking in awe of an interesting blue lake. With more protesting from Becka, I climbed up as well.
The pool in question was like something out of a sci fi film, Its colour and complexity was preternatural. I could explain it to you by a picture able to convey more than words.
With rekindled enthusiasm for exploration we continued deeper into a truly surreal environment, the vast relic stream passage was littered with artefacts of its past; here and there, pools of immaculate water lay undisturbed for presumably quite a while; marbled fractal mud formations encrusted the lower surfaces; bizarre spiky rock formations en-habited the walls, formed by a vigorous torrent, long forgotten.
With over 400m on the PDA, we returned to camp. The commute seemed friendlier, for me at least, with a sense of accomplishment under the belt.
Waking up for the second time in absence of sunlight, the task for the 'day' was to de-rig and prusik out.
The camp was packed up and raised to the top of Kraken in five caries up the pitch (one by me two each by George and Becka). George competed a particularly obscene carry: a huge orange survival bag tied at the top with cord, he looked like a surreal speleo version of Santa Claus.
Once camp was sorted, we began the long ascent to the surface. Becka and I set of with some bags of rope while the machine that is George began to de-rig the pitches.
This was my first trip to Kraken camp, but it might also be the last. However as one good thing comes to an end, the next is on the horizon: with the persistent efforts of this year (especially by George and Becka) a new region of Balkony has proved promising, and so, the camp will be reformed there with new opportunities awaiting.
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-09
Becka Lawson,
Expo - A mature view of Expo
Blog Author: BeckaA mature view of Expo
[from https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=23424.msg299639#msg299639 ]
We've already had posts from first timers so, to balance that out, here's my old-timer's perspective on this year's Expo. This summer I did a lot of my caving with George because, at the start of Expo, it was clear that he was lacking direction and, whilst not green (this was his third time out) that he'd benefit from my experience, constructive advice and tactful supervision.
For the avoidance of doubt, and for those of you don't know us, that's utter bollocks. George is a far better caver than me at SRT, rigging, finding and sticking with a project, navigation (not hard), climbing, carrying heavy bags, derigging, patience, surveying, conservation and scooping (yup, it's out there, sue me for defamation if you dare!). Don't be running away with the idea that list is comprehensive though: I have the edge on him at squeezes (despite him being willing to try harder, sleep deprivation (my, don't young people sleep a lot?), I'm far bossier and, though I haven't tested this properly, I reckon I've a greater bloody-minded capacity for enduring misery (I suspect it would take around a week of 10 hour trips in small, cold, wet, muddy, boring caves to break him and you just wouldn't believe how full my diary is right now so that'll have to wait).
Anyway, we (us two, Luke, Olly, Adam, Rachel, Nadia, Jacob, Philip, Wookey and Max) had a series of fine trips including finding what we think is the deepest shaft in the SMK system (Mongol Rally at 200m deep), two connections between Balkonh?hle and Tunnockschact, a sprout and a sump at -720m, many, many bat bones and over 5km of passage including the monster Grand Prix (
incidentally, I agree, what's with the names? My carefully crafted puns were all flat-out rejected so we're stuck with a notable chamber called Big Lad - it should have been Raisin' Hell - and both Hangryman Pitch and Hangeryman Pitch are still up for grabs). Also, after 5 weeks of training I've mastered an alternative way to the tie a stopper knot and learnt the industry standard way to tie knots in the end of a rope (thanks, guys, for that fine use of my strictly limited long term memory).
After 220 hours underground this summer with CUCC I've skipped derigging (obviously I'd have loved to have helped out but unfortunately the timing was against me) and I've decamped to spend a week with the local Austrian club (VHO http://vho-caving-news.blogspot.com/) on their Plankamira expedition. This made for quite a culture change - there's only 5 of us and we're all around a half century old. Now, at last, my rigging suggestions are listened to attentively (rather than being firmly squashed) and nobody passes comment about the volume of food I get through (George eats like a grasshopper). I've also escaped the unending put-downs - "if you're going to rig that pitch don't do a half-arsed job of it"; "that wouldn't have happened if you hadn't placed it in a flake"; "you and your slopy shoulders"; and "no, you can't lead us out, you're so bad it's just not funny" and so on. Also, it's relaxing not having to tell everyone what to do
Best of all, I'm now the fastest prussiker (yeah, yeah, of
course it's not a competition).
On the down side VHO are agonisingly slow to get going (how can anyone spend more than 9 hours in a sleeping bag? It's mental torture when you're camping underground and you're too polite to start loudly crinkling plastic bags and accidentally shining your light in people's eyes. Not that that worked anyway, you idle sods). And then, once they're up, there's the coffee to drink then the second coffee then breakfast then herbal tea and a second herbal tea before anything might happen. Hmm, thinking about it, George would have done better here instead of me (his favourite thing: sleeping; his next most favourite thing: sitting around doing nothing).
I did struggle on skills transfer ... this summer I heard someone claim that thru-bolts (as VHO use) have fewer modes of failure than Hiltis (that CUCC uses). Well, not in my hands, I can tell you. Of my dozen none went in easily (I must have been given the wrong diameter drill bit, goddammit) and there was horrible flaking with several, whilst one cracked out altogether with the rock it was in (I blame the Petzl hammer they gave me, it made all the rock sound shit so, since the good-looking rock made the same sound I deduced that all the rock was good. Then it fell apart). Most distressingly, on three of them the sleeve thing split and refused to go into the hole, just rucking up on the outside. Please, can I give up and go home? VHO rigging is typically spare, no Y-hangs unless there's a big swing and no deviations (there wasn't a single sling on the expedition). However, I was so worried about my lousy thru-bolts that my section was backups and Y-hangs all the way.
On the first day we got out in the dark from a new cave with over an hour's walk back to camp and big bags. The other half of the team set off confidently but then, 30 minutes later, he pointed at least 90 degrees off when I asked him to show where he thought camp was. Foolishly I'd not saved it as a waypoint on my phone and he was struggling with a new app on his phone so all we had to go on was the outline of the peaks around us. I persuaded him I knew which one to aim for and, 15 minutes later, hurrah, someone at camp saw us and left their light on so we slogged towards it. But then the light went out and we were reduced to navigating towards the sound of the generator reverberating in the huge rock bowl we were lost in before it was switched off. Then my companion, dressed in the shortest of hip-hugging racing shorts, refused to follow me through some prickly dwarf pine. I'll go round and meet you, he says, then disappeared. So now I'm by myself, three hours walk from anyone bar us few cavers so I shout his name. Eventually he shouts back "Don't cry unless it's an emergency". Then silence. Grrrr. So I hang around looking for his light and eventually spot him beetling off towards camp without a backward glance. I'll be damned if he gets there first so I stumble off and we arrive together. Two hours on Karren karst on a moonless night and I barely glanced up once so I caught just the one shooting star on the best night of the year for the Perseid shower.
Now I'm back down the hill in time to fix my broken tooth (note to self: don't eat rock at underground camp). We (well, the Cambridge University Caring Club, which tickled me) have just been awarded a certificate for our 35 years of service by the Mayor of Bad Aussee, Hilde made us delicious doughnuts to celebrate and I'm signed up for a final top camp carry tomorrow so all's right with the world.
Becka
Here's a few photos to brighten up the post and, I stand corrected "whilst not green (this was his third fourth time out)"
A strikingly colourful lake near the sump in Tunnockschacht
What's this? Surely not life on the banks of a starless river?
Yes: a pallid sprout growing in a huge mud bank just before the sump
The sump at -720m at the end of Scum of the Earth in Octopus Garden
All photos by George Breley
Becka
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-10
Luke Stangroom, George Breley, Rachel Turnbull, Becka Lawson,
Balkon - Camping trip : Balkon
8th, 9th, 10tgh August
Balkon -> top of Kraken, collect camp,
move it to Littleboy, ->Push in Indy Races (8th Aug.) then push Horrible Pitch in
Indy Races (B+G) + push One Direction (L+R) (9th Aug.) then exit with big bags (10th Aug.)
[Caved 11:00-21:00 on 8th,
caved 11:00-20:00 L+R, 11:00-23:00 B+G on 9th,
caved 07:00-12:00 L+R, 08:00-11:00 G, 08:00-12:00 B on 10th.]
Day 1
In with food + dumped it below Littleboy pitch which we
thought could make a good camp then to the vast dumpof stuff at the top of Kraken.
L+G already shuttling gear by the time R+I arrived(we took 2 hour to bottom Mongol Rally)(G took 15' to descend Mongo Rally +
they took 2h to the top of Kraken).
Large Marge + 5 tacklesacks plus the drill bag + some claptrapwere ferried across the traverse then we slogged them up
the climbs to get them into Grand Prix. That broke the back of it.
We took one load each to Little Boy (surprisingly Large Marge made it intact all the way)
+ found a campsite against the wall looking out to the pitch.
R+I made a levelsleeping platform, dragging out the mud +
putting in a retaining wall of boulders whilst L+G scoped out water, finding a good source midway down
Indy Rally. Needs a scoop (e.g. a mug) but only ~10' to fill a Daren drum.
We laid the tent flat as a groundsheet then mats. No draft + we weren't cold at night.
We then all headed to the end of Indy Races. Rachel boltedthe draftng traverse but this immediately led to
the head of the wet pitch so she + Luke surveyed then derigged it.
George started to rig the pitch (Horrible Pitch), grumbling lots about shit rockwhich led to someugly, rubbing drops.
We surveyed + then Luke + I fetched (?) the rest of the camp gear from the start of
Grand Prix whilst George + Rachel surveyed 2 loops near camp.
Day 2
Luke + Rachel headed to leads in Grand Prix which led
nowhere but then they hit paydirt in the QMC on the left in
Indy Rally before the water source. This gave 50m crawling
then a junction. One way led in good-sized passage back to
Grand Prix + the other way was drafting + left-going. George
+ I returned to Horrible Pitch + George quickly rigged down
to a big ledge. This gave a short corkscrewing
passage that led back to the conclusion (?) of Horrible Pitch
but we were diverted for some time by some smaller
tunnels off the horizontal route that I found. This led to
some interesting, drafty tubes + possible leads. I put in some
lousy bolts + then found the rope too short so, with
relief, handed the rigging back to George + I returned to
camp to fetch another bag of rope.
George got down
to a double ledge by a bridge with water flowing in. Here he
ambled up a steep mud slope (er, do you know how far
above that last bolt you are?) + put in a bolt
(er, youv'e got loads of Hiltis, why not a Y-hang?)
+ ambled back down
the slope, over a sharp rock ridge and dropped inelegantly (i.e. with rubs)
to the floor. You could also go directly down from
the double ledge to the floor. All of Horrible Pitch is dry
despite lots of watery bits nearby.
We ran around at the
bottom + George managed to temporarliy strand himself up a climb up a mud
bank. Geoge was pretty much surveyed-out by now but
he steeled himself for one final slog doing the bottom
+ then the 2 pitch sections. We left it rigged.
We found the otehrs asleep by the time we got back to camp.
Day 3
Rudely awoken at 06:00 when Luke + Rachel got up to head out
(I can't complain, I'd spent an hour or two yesterday morning
rustling bags and shining my light at them trying to get people going).
They had packed the muddiest rope the night before + headed out at 07:00.
By then George + I had given
up on sleeping so we got up + packed more junk + headed out at 08:15.
George caught the others at the top of Mongol Rally
and was out in 3h - yeah, yeah... Luke + Rachel
took 5h and I took 4h (I ditched a rope at the top
of Hangman's as I seemed to be going at snail's pace and
both my jammers + my pantin slipped all the way up -
poor technique according to Luke, sigh).
End of my caving for Expo 2018 -221h underground for me :-) Off
to Plonkermira [??] with VHO tomorrow to see how things look
from the other side of the hill...
This has been transcsribed into ugcamplist.html
T/U: 49 hours
2018-08-01
Jacob, George, Olly
Balkonhöhle - to Tunnocks
As well as being my first caving trop of the expo, this was also the first Balkon-Tunnock's through trip made. George changed the hang at the top of Mongol Rally, added a rebelay and fixed another at the bottom of MR. Olly began to bolt the right hand wall of Floodland. He got so far down the pitch but didn't bottom due to time constraints.
The connection between Balkon and Tunnocks is very impressive. Large chamber after large chamber.
The Prusik out was a laugh! It was an introduction and a half to Austrian caving. 10/10 would do it again.
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-12
Anthony Day, Becka Lawson,
Surface - Prospecting holes from yesterday
[from Callout book]
Prospecting holes from yesterday near/towards the Brauning Wall
Callout 2100
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-12
Chris Densham, Ruairidh MacLeod, Wookey,
258 - String Theory & Usual Suspects
[from Callout book]
'Chris' assumed to be Chris D. as Chris H arrived later in expo?
Callout 2200
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-13
Alex Stirling, Jon Toft, Ryan Boultbee,
Fishface - Garden School
[from Callout book]
dep. 0800. J., Ryan & 2 Germans & Alex.
No one here at basecamp [Philip S.] so effective callout will be at top camp.
Callout - at top camp when Luke gets there approx.2100
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-13
Philip Sargent,
base camp - "Local contact: Dr. Helmut Kalss"
Helmut Kalss
Hitched a lift down from the carpark with Helmut Kalss who lives in Altausee (we drive past his house every time we go up to the
plateau). He is a local and teaches at the agricultural college. He knew about the SMK system but not what we had done - so he gave
me a lift to the potato hut and I showed him the posters and aven. (He also has a hat with a feather in it.)
T/U: 0 hours
2018-08-13
Ryan, Alex, Jacob
FGH - Finishing Fish Face beyond Gardening School, discovering Private Pineapple Pitch
Accompanied by Pi and Andt (two German cavers).
The trip was to push Fish Face further following a low-level lead in Gardening School. An exchange was agreed with German cavers whereby they would offer us a trip if we offered them a trip (an agreement arranged by Alex and Jacob during the bottom base camp BBQ). The trip also allowed the German's to experience top camp, both who were incredibly impressed by the arrangement, declaring, "You English are mad!" The international caving group encounted a language barrier in the especilly crumbly and loose passages of the Fish Face entrance pitch and traverse. WHile descending Alex had one of the Germans (Pi) shout "stein!", somewhat confussed he looked up to find the German caver was not offering him a beer, insted a number of rocks had been kicked down. A system was then proposed by the Germans to overcome the language barrier. The sylable count of words would indicate the cave command, therefore the language used would be rendered pointless.
Image of the syllable system table
It was also agreed during the trip that signiifciant space woudl be left berween cavers on th epitch/traverse series leading on from another due to the daners of very loose rock and the potential of injury. The gardening school passage was pushed beyond the unnamed and unknown pitch that offered a lead. Originally we believed that a shaft 3/4m down would be best for a rebelay, however on investigation this appeared to be a large boulder wedged between a large rift. Furthermore, the placement of the boulder, nicknamed 'coffin lid', appeared to be only secured by small boulders. The decision was made to drop the Y hang down through a squeezy pitch, although tight, the pitch is easily accessible. The newly found Pirate Pineapple Pitch (PPP) ~50m and decends down further into the rift. Multiple passages can be seen coming of this pitch which may be worth future exploration. The pitch bottoms out in a small chamber ~10m^3. A smaller interesting chamber is to the right, nicknamed 'mud hole', here a variety of interesting geological features are found. ALso at this point a small pool of water has forned. Directly in front of the dropped pitch after a smooth step the rift can be seen to bottom out. However, at this point, we had ran out of rope. An additional 15/20m (unreadble word) have allowed us to reach the bottom. We assume this amy be the bottom as its the collection point for many of the smaller dropped rocks. The rift appears to curve around the corner offering a potential easy lead for those who are willing to push this further.
NB: the pitch was named Pirate Pineapple Pitch due to the consumption of a pineapple by some rugged looking cavers at the bottom of the pitch. The carrying of pineapples to inappropriate places is a tradition upheld by Alex Sterling (sp?) of Nottingham University Caving Club in reference to the Pineapple on Tour (sp?) - a society at Nottingham University which took pineapples up munrows in Scotland. The society was dispelled by the university and folded into other outdoor societies.
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-13
Jacob Pulaho,
Eishohle -Schneevulkanhalle Tourist Trip
Accompanied by Pi and Andt (two German cavers).
While drunk and making friends with some Germans, one of them, Andt, gave me a proposition: "You take me caving and I'll take you caving in an ice cave... with a snow volcano." I liked this idea! Despite the cave being less than 1k from top camp, due to Losser's 'I'm going to kill you with every steo you take' nature we had to walk accross the plateau toward Applehaus and then take that path. After negotiating some traverse, beating some bunde and safely avoiding the caver grinding we arrive at some dead larch... and a misty cave entrance! THis was to be our exit point. Pi headed up the hill to start rigging the top entrance while Andt gave me a quick lesson on how to walk with crampons. When crampon school was over, we too head to the top entrance. An oblong entrance of 10m-ish by 4m wide entrance pitch to the top of the snow volcano was probably 40/50m. When on top of volcano, daylight can still be seen. 'Tis quite impressive. When on top of volcano the size of the chamber starts to become apparent. In the distance ice stalls can be seen glistening through the mist. We continue the descent, this time down the side of the snow volcano for ~3-m until we reach the bottom.
Ice is hit.
Rope free.
Wow!
This chamber would be impressive even without all the ice. We wander around for a bit and I amazingly manage to remain standing I literally cannot stop smiling. Some of the ice pillars were easily 15m high! Eventually, Im forced to live by the call of nature. We exit through what was once called the Elephant Arse - cos there was a formation that like an elephant but has sadly melted since. I emerge from the cave, breathe, appriciate life and then have a piss!
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-13
Neil Smith, Natalie Uomini,
plateau - Tagging Surface Trip and Lightning Storm descent
Went 100m NW of top camp to put a tag on a possible cave (located previously on 8-9/08 by Nat and Paul) numbered 2018-NTU-01. We practiced hand bolting to install the tag and picked wild chives.
As water was needed at camp, snow was collected for the bivy. While Ryan efficiently poured 5 tackle sacks of snow into the rain tarp, Nat and Alex and Ruairidh proceeded to practice drilling a Z-rig to try to haul an overfilled bag of snow vertically (see separate write up). While taking 2 ropes each down the mountain, we successfully crosses the plateau in fabulous perfect weather, only to be hit by a sudden bad storm at the col. An hour of super heavy rain and lightening was upon us. We were forced to emergency shelter in our double-bivy baf near a rock.
Several very close lightening strikes (with 0 second gaps) reminded us how quickly the weather can turn against you on the mountain.
Lost 1 and half hrs of time waiting for lightening to subside, so final hour of walk down was in darkness and driving rain and winds.
REMEMBER: Check the weather, kids!!!
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-15
Luke Stangroom, Radost Waszkiewicz, Max Weiser, Christopher Holt,
FGH - "FGH Derig"
Derig was going to be a big job. Tonnes of rope still down several holes, and most people had already buggered off, and a fair few of those still around had buggered themselves in some fashion! So we had maybe 6 decent cavers to do maybe 20 bags worth of rope from 3 different entrances in two days. The real hard nuts had done most of Balkonhole on a camp/push/derig the day before, and half of that group were quite deservedly taking a day off. Ruaridh's broken arm had mysteriously 'Got better, honest' until we made him prove it by climbing into the Animal house, so he was out. Fishface/Fischgesicht was the next biggest project, with ~300m depth and vague rumours of a drill left at the bottom for the "unclimbable" leads.
I'd always known it was goin to be a little bit cheeky turning up just for the end of Expo and still hoping to get a chance to push something, but as it turned out I wasn't even the most jammy of the lot! I'd had a couple of days to acclimatise to camp life and reacquaint myself with the hypothermic delights of Alpine caving when Radost finally arrived (Actually, he had been there earlier, but was just showing his Dad around and wasn't caving), making two of us who hadn't pushed anything. So, the priorities for this trip were to be
- Derig a metric tonne of rope.
- Retrieve the drill
- Check whether the sod who left the drill hadn't left other vital equipment too
- Show me (Christopher) and Rad how to bolt, and do a little bit of surveying
- Maybe do a rigging guide to speed things up next year
Anyway, after the standard intrepid hike across the plateau, all looking super-cool if I don't say so myself, we change and Luke and Rad zip down while Max waited for me to get changed. Max and I had already been all the way to Ulysses earlier that week, so he assumed I remembered the way and shot ahead. I have a terrible memory for complex junctions and my light casts a very sharp throw-pattern, so I still got lost a couple of times and found them all taking a leisurely rest at that nice picnic spot, below the free-climb pitchy thing, where left goes to the way on and right to that disgusting traverse across Ulysses (which Max had derigged two days before and left 70m in a pile in case people wanted to bolt leads below).
There was a brief discussion of what we should expect, and we settled on the priorities listed above. Luke declared 4pm(?) to be our turnaround time. He wasn't keen on taking more rope deeper into the cave, but given Rad's and my keenness to push the two of us decided to pack it anyway once Luke and Max went ahead. It was only ten minutes later that the shout was relayed to us "Guys! There's more rope down here anyway! DEFINITELY don't bring that other rope!" I duly returned the bag to its original position and retrieved the survey gear, which I had of course forgotten to put back in the bag.
The lower shaft of Fischgesicht is a truly marvellous black hole - One of those can't-see-the-bottom, can't-see-the-top ones. In stark contrast to the rest of the cave above, it was extremely poorly rigged. Well, I suppose it could have been worse, but even on the way down I was thinking "Should I retie that knot? It really looks like it rubs. No, it's probably just me being a wuss and it's like that for a reason". This was looking at a lop-sided, 2-metre wide Y-hang that required a sort of acrobatic climb down to access. New rope, at least, though it was quite dry and required a lot of patience to avoid glazing. Plenty of time to look around the blackness and ponder the geological mysteries of metamorphosed Carboniferous sediments.
We needn't have brought in a drill battery, as together with the drill there were 3 high-capacity ones already there. Rad informed me that Luke and Max had gone up the slightly more obvious (right turn at both junctions) of the labyrinthine passages in this new horizontal level to check that the dead end really was one - apparently the small climb Max did crapped out very quickly. We met back at a junction, I picked up the survey gear from the previous junction, and we headed off (left at second junction) to check the other end of this slightly-larger passage. Everyone agreed that this was a cracking horizontal level. Very nice walking-sized!
The previous group (whose identity remains to me as nebulous and vague as their cave descriptions) had apparently concluded that "you'll need bolts and rope to push any of the leads". Total bollocks. We did find a quite sketchy looking climb overlooking the virgin passage floor, but there were two different crawling ways to bypass it! After this initial reccy we reconvened and distributed survey gear. I was to get to grips with the CHECC disto, entrusted to me by Luke that morning. Rad wanted to do the drawing. I had forgotten to pack any station-marking stuff, but luckily Luke had some nail varnish in his pocket. We reckonned we had an hour and a half to push, and with no bolting necessary, the excitement of potentially hundreds of metres of 3x3m phreatic tube became evident in everyone's voices.
So, on to the description itself. The phreatic tube trends uphill, with a vadose trench in the bottom taking the water gradually deeper and out of sight and earshot. Where the passage jumps up a dodgy climb, the safer way on is through one of two little holes down and to the left - the leftmost a low crawl, and slightly to the right of that a narrowish slot. After these, a small chamber with boulders on the floor
Crawl. We managed to shoot the lazer straight through a tiny window, avoiding the need to survey the crooked oxbow crawl round the right. Now in another small chamber, but open both forwards/left up a slope, and vertically/right into the big tube, where we were later able to survey the loop (seems to be a near-oxbow of the phreas, which was undercut to make this 3-way big junction with a fourth crawly way that we had just come through). We progressed forwards up the slope, and the 3x3m tube meanders around for m. The floor of the tube is covered with sandy mud that seems to have a darkened crust. Very easy to follow the path established by the first person. About halfway along Luke dropped his nail-varnish, so we resorted to scratching in the mud on the walls. There is a bit of a climb up before a steep slide down a sandy slope. Take care to avoid falling in the hole at the bottom - it looks like a soft landing because of the pile of sand, but I've no idea how you would get out of that chamber - it looks a bit like the whole tube has a false floor in that area. Anyway, the tube continues, eventually changing in profile to more of a tall 2x5m elipse. The noise of the stream can now be heard again - far below, but I suppose cascading more steeply and so making a louder sound. Eventually we reached a sloping-sided hole in the floor, obviously wet at the bottom, QMc, with the same old tube heading up to the right, QMa, and a bottomless traverse on the opposite side of the hole, QMb. All of these will require either bolting of a traverse across the hole or a spiderman-like grip and balls of steel. I would prefer the bolted traverse option.
We still had over half an hour to go, so we returned ot one of the side passages we had noticed earlier. Climbing back up that steep sandy slope was interesting - everyone had a different method; running full pelt, desperate scrambling, chimping up the wall, etc. Rad was about to zoom off when I called him back - "You do know I won't be able to do anything from up here, don't you?" he observed. "Yes, but I don't want to die alone!". Cautiously attempting to disturb the sand as little as possible, I delicately levitated myself to a position of safety.
It was only a couple of legs into the side passage that it started going crazy. A-leads to the left, A and B-leads to the right, leads below - way too much to do any justice to in the time we had left. Clearly the polite thing to do was to leave it for some lucky bastard next year. There's enough down there for two simultaneous survey groups.
Derig - I was to go up the big pitch with one bag of rope, Radost to follow with the drill and batteries, then pass it to me to put in the top of the 70m bag at Ulysses. I was so mentally beasted from prusiking with a palpable twang on every bounce, at least until I passed the rub-point, and then He-Manning it past that rebelay, that I completely forgot about Rad's bag until I was about to go past Ulysses. I backtracked and hauled his bag up the little pitch for him, packed it in the top of the rope bag there, and with two heavy bags proceded up the free-climb. I had a bit of a sense of humour failure at the top, and having overheard Max "so how many bags do you have, Rad?" "At the moment, precisely zero!" I foisted the heavier one back onto him, selfishly thinking that it would be better for the first person to travel light and quick. Even one bag on that traverse was troublesome, and so when at the top of the next pitch I heard Rad swearing his way through with two, I decided to redeem myself and took back one of them.
It was slow progress up the rest of the cave, barely keeping ahead of the deriggers (Luke and Max). At another free-climb I reaslised after >10 minutes of struggling that it was much easier to just throw the bags up and then chimp up after them. At the surface, I debagged and lay looking at the stars for a couple of minutes, before returning to the first pitch to take Rad's bag. He was decidedly less talkative than usual, and had the look of a man who needs a break - "it's just quite a heavy bag for a first trip" - I was inclined to agree. I saw another 3 meteors in the space of 20 seconds before going back to sketch a rudimentary diagram of the entrance traverses and take one bag from Max, and then back again for another. Realistically, it was the easiest bit of the bag carry, but it was hard thinking of Luke and Max doing all that work and not trying to help out.
The decision to leave all the tackle sacks at the entrance was endorsed unanimously. I poured myself a large Schnapps and followed everyone in double-curry dinner and falling asleep immediately.
T/U: 0.0 hours
2018-08-19
Christopher Holt, Philip Sargent,
115 - Schnellzughöhle
On the way back from KH entrance, Chris and I detoured to 115 to get 6 litres of water as we were very thirsty. Also took out the museli and flapjack. Left ~4 litres of water and a orange polythene swirl ('survival'?) bag.
T/U 0 mins
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